#slapp suits

What started all of this?

As soon as content creation went from a simple hobby into a multi-million dollar business, and as soon as all other branches of the entertainment business started relying on the internet for their survival; the scene began to be managed less like a community and more LIKE a business.

Large creators come to no longer see scrutiny as a necessary tool for humility and begin seeing all of their critics as existential threats to their business. Regardless of how truthful or how necessary the public conversations are, money and pride come first before accountability.

And so, they weaponize the already broken legal system; primarily from the US, against their critics in what is called a "SLAPP suit".

What is a SLAPP suit?

A SLAPP suit stands for "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation", it is a lawsuit, usually filed under defamation, that isn't necessarily either threatened or filed with the intent to win it, but is made with the intent to silence unwanted speech by the threat of litigation or essentially life ruination by way of bleeding the target dry of resources.

It is intented to scare the person receiving the threat, as well as anyone they know, into ceasing all mention of the individual(s) or all speech even related to the individuals issuing the SLAPP suit. It isn't illegal, per se, but it is legally an abuse of the legal system.

Out of the 50 states that make up the United States, 40 have preexisting anti-SLAPP provisions to their legal code, with these existing to protect individuals from this specific type of abuse, most of these allowing for early dismissal of a case if it is found to be a SLAPP:

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

What constitutes a SLAPP suit or a threat of a SLAPP suit?

Threatening legal action over mockery, banter, critique or roasting.

Threatening legal action towards an individual or individuals with past negative experiences with you as a person in order to prevent them from coming out about their experience.

Threatening legal action over commentary.

Threatening legal action over other people's speech that wasn't made by the person being threatened.

Demanding cessation of all speech related to the person issuing the threat or the people related to them.

Redundant speech and overcomplicated language.

Demanding public humiliation, such as demanding from the person that they read a letter of apology.

Demanding they sign anything prior to an actual lawsuit being filed.

Demanding for the threat, in either verbal form or in the form of a cease and desist, not be acknowledged publicly.

Among plenty of other things.

Does a SLAPP suit ever actually work in the creator's favor?

Technically? Yes. But not for long. It works in the immediate short-term by stopping the person(s) threatened from immediately continuing to speak up, maybe even getting them to take down certain posts in a panic.

We'll touch on the victim's side in a bit, because the response of the victim is a symptom of the wider reason why this never works for long, and that's the Streisand Effect.

The Streisand Effect has a very simple premise, the more you attempt to hide something, the more aggressively — the easier it'll be for people to find it out. Especially when you give the people you are attempting to silence nothing to lose if they're going to suffer anyway.

Besides that, once knowledge of the SLAPP suit comes out, the reputation of the creator takes an irreversible hit. Almost no one in the online space respects a creator that abuses the legal system to silence others. No matter how justified the creator thinks they are.

The only ones that actually "get away" with SLAPP suits are the large, over a million creators. Like the ex-commentary youtuber I mentioned, and I only mean get away in the sense that they can win the legal proceedings through the sheer level of resources compared to their opponent.

Their reputation, however NEVER heals.

What happens to the victim of the SLAPP suit attempt/threat?

Most of the people threatened or facing a SLAPP suit are regular folk, without the resources and means and hell, maybe even safety in their personal lives to actually meet the threat in the courtroom.

Many give in to the pressure and demands for the sake of their safety. Most don't do such a thing.

Attempts to leverage power against those weaker or more at risk than you triggers a mix of Cornerned Animal Syndrome and Mutually Assured Destruction within the online space. By pushing someone to the brink, making them feel like they have nothing to lose since they WILL lose anyway — you make them significantly more likely for them to speak out and fight back anyway.

And this is where the last point ties back to this one, because once the boiling point is reached, the victim is the one usually victorious, at least in the court of public opinion.

As said previously, Almost nobody in the internet likes or respects a creator that issues a SLAPP suit, even as an empty threat. Once the information comes out to the public, the rallying effect almost always ends up going for the one victimized.

How does this affect the community in which this occurs?

It is not pretty, to say the least. If it is a fandom already around a preexisting IP, the fandom will survive... Most of the time. But trust on the larger creators will crater if not dissapear completely, specially towards the creators that were friends and associates of the creator that issued the SLAPP suit, as you as a fan can never know if you can speak negatively on any of them in a public setting without getting attacked. It sows fear, of the leaders of the community, and fear sows division.

The community survives, but takes a while to recover.

In Conclusion;

SLAPP suits, when used in a fandom or online community setting, are the metaphorical nuke thrown into a city of innocents. And overall, are a massive mistake of hubris that CANNOT be taken back.

Once even so much as a threat of a SLAPP suit is issued, it dooms the credibility of the creator that issued it if they're not absurdly rich, dooms their career prospects, kills the trust and love of the fans and wider community once it comes out, and while the creator may win the relatively short legal war, they will lose the much, MUCH longer social war. (and yes a few years in a legal battle is short compared to the internet remembering what you did for the rest of the time you remain as a public figure on the internet.) They lock themselves onto a path of destruction the moment they abandon accountability for the nigh on narcissistic need to protect their own pride and MANY of them see it as worth it against all odds.

Well, at least until it bites them in the ass.

This, is another reason why I BEG and plead of the people that follow me to not put ANY creator on a pedestal, including me. You do not truly know ANY of us, down to the smallest content creators. Being awful, like going so far as to attempt to weaponize the legal system to destroy someone for saying something mean or saying something truthful but disgusting about us, is not BENEATH us.